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Tag Archives: Ball

This week’s memorable movie moment takes us back to the first sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World (1997). Also based on the preceding novel by Michael Crichton, the film is the only Jurassic Park sequel to be directed by Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Bridge of Spies), although he has served as executive producer on JP3 (2001) and Jurassic World (2015). In fact The Lost World is the only sequel that Spielberg has opted to direct, outside of the Indiana Jones series. It was also his first time back to film after he took a leave of absence when Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List were completed and became box office hits both in the same year. Author Michael Crichton had titled the book after the famous novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which also features a mysterious island with dinosaurs and other strange phenomena.

A new indie “dramedy” titled Swiss Army Man with Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, Prisoners) and Daniele Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Victor Frankenstein) is seeing a limited theatrical release this weekend before its nationwide release on July 1st. Written and directed by filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (My Best Friend’s Wedding/My Best Friend’s Sweating, Interesting Ball), the movie follows a man stranded in the wilderness, hopeless, when he discovers and (here’s where it gets weird) befriends a dead body and sets out on an epic journey with the corpse on his back to somehow find a way home. Critics were a bit harsh on the film when it was shown at Sundance earlier this year, but it did manage to secure the Directing Award for Kwan and Scheinert. The trailer honestly looks like the most bizarre blend of human emotion, dark comedy, and epic adventure all wrapped up into one. Dano and Radcliffe also seem to show excellent performances, especially Radcliffe, who has taken on a rather interesting variety of films since hanging up his Hogwarts robes, so if this one is playing in a theater near you this weekend, I would definitely recommend checking it out. The trailer is here on MADE…Enjoy!

A new wartime comedy starring Tina Fey (30 Rock, Sisters) and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus) titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is opening in theaters this Friday, March 4th. The film is an adaptation of author Kim Barker’s novel The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, about a journalist during her time reporting in the war-ridden Middle East. Screenwriter Robert Carlock (Friends, Saturday Night Live) adapted the book for directing partners Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris, Crazy Stupid Love). Co-starring in the film are actors Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Hot Fuzz), Alfred Molina (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc, Spider-Man 2), Christopher Abbott (Martha Marcy May Marlene, A Most Violent Year), and Billy Bob Thornton (Monster’s Ball, Armageddon). This one first seemed like a pretty strange comedy for Tina Fey to take on, but judging from the latest trailer, it does look like a pretty promising piece of screenwriting, so I guess we’ll just have to see this weekend. The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy!

This Valentine’s Day weekend will see plenty of big screen features released for you and your date to go and see for your big date night outings. First up is the new comic-book adaptation for Deadpool with Ryan Reynolds (Safe House, Self/Less) and Morena Baccarin (Heartland, Spy), which, considering it’s an R-rated comic adaptation, has many fans waiting in high anticipation for last night’s midnight showing. The second up is the long awaited comedy sequel Zoolander 2, featuring Ben Stiller (Dodgeball, Meet the Parents), Owen Wilson (Old School, Wedding Crashers), Penelope Cruz (Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Black Mass), and Will Ferrell (Superstar, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy). This time out, supermodels Derek and Hansel must join forces once again to stop an opposing company lead by longtime rival Mugatu (Ferrell) from putting them out of business. Ben Stiller got behind the director’s chair for the new film, and also co-wrote the movie with screenwriters Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder, Iron Man 2), Nicholas Stoller (Fun With Dick and Jane, The Five-Year Engagement), and John Hamburg (Along Came Polly, I Love You Man). The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy your Valentine’s Day weekend!

The Coen Brothers are finally back on the big screen with a new comedy titled Hail Caesar!. Starring Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers, Iron Man 2), Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Foxcatcher), Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener, Spectre), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street, Moneyball) and Coen regulars Tilda Swinton (Burn After Reading, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men, Men In Black 3), and George Clooney (Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, Ocean’s Eleven), the film follows a Hollywood ‘fixer’ who works for Capital Records in the 1950s and must deal with the disappearance of the studio’s biggest star before an upcoming release is ruined by the schemers behind the kidnapping. The film was co-written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (in their usual fashion), and will be their first project together since 2013’s Oscar-nominated drama Inside Llewyn Davis with Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Carey Mulligan (Drive, The Great Gatsby), although they have written several films since then, including director Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. The trailer for Hail Caesar! is available here on MADE. Look for it in theaters this February 5th.

Oscar winner Sandra Bullock (Speed, Crash), who has been lending her voice to animated comedies of late, is returning to the big screen this week in a new “dramedy” Our Brand Is Crisis. Directed by Pineapple Express and East Bound & Down director David Gordon Green, the film is a dramatization of Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary of the same name by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Straughan (Tinkler Taylor Soldier Spy, The Men Who Stare At Goats). Bullock stars as Jane, an experienced political campaign strategist who is sent to war-torn South American to aid in the installation of a new leader, but whose efforts art threatened to be thwarted by an old political rival. Also starring in the film is Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton (Armageddon, Monster’s Ball), with Anthony Mackie (Million Dollar Baby, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Joaquim de Almeida (Clear and Present Danger, Behind Enemy Lines), and Scoot McNairy (Argo,12 Years A Slave) included in the supporting cast. Argo producers George Clooney (The Ides of March, The Monuments Men) and Grant Heslov (Good Night and Good Luck, August: Osage County) are behind the production of the project, which thus far has drawn much praise for Bullock’s acting, but also mixed feelings about the screenplay and directing. I suppose you’ll have to decide for yourself when you see it in theaters! The movie opens on Friday. Enjoy the trailer.

Academy Award winner (and 13x nominee) Stanley Kubrick is well deserved of his reputation and stature as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers. He passed away in 1999, but his long-standing legacy included such films as A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Full Metal Jacket (1987), The Shining (1980), and his last film with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), all of which he wrote and produced himself. Now, 16 years after his death, Kubrick’s storytelling will be able to reach modern audiences in the form of a new film trilogy by director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) called The Downslope. The script for Downslope was actually written by Kubrick back in 1956 and revolved around a feud between Union General George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his Mosby’s Rangers, who time-and-again succeeded in raids and surprise-attacks against the much larger Union militants. Forster will actually be developing a trilogy of films following Kubrick’s script, which he developed over several years with historian Shelby Foote while researching Custer and Mosby, even drawing up maps and details of the battle scenes and how he would have filmed it. Obviously Kubrick, himself, never ended up making the movie, but considering his extensive work in its production, Forster should be able to get pretty close to his original vision, only with modern filmmaking technology. Information on a release date or casting is not yet available, but we’ll keep an eye out for more news. Stay tuned!

With the release date for the upcoming Entourage movie quickly approaching, fans will definitely want to watch the new trailer. The movie will bring back stars Adrian Grenier (A.I., Hart’s War), Kevin Connolly (John Q, The Notebook), Jeremy Piven (Old School, Smokin’ Aces), Jerry Ferrara (Think Like A Man, Lone Survivor), and Kevin Dillon (Platoon, The Doors) as Vince, Eric, Ari, Turtle, and Drama, plus a whole ensemble of supporting cast members, including series producer Mark Wahlberg (Four Brothers, The Departed), Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Awake), Debi Mazar (Goodfellas, Batman Forever), David Spade (Tommy Boy, Joe Dirt), Bob Saget (Full House, America’s Funniest Home Videos), Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger), Billy Bob Thornton (Armageddon, Monster’s Ball), Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and series regular Rhys Coiro (The Unborn, Straw Dogs) as outspoken independent-director Billy Walsh. Picking up 15 years after the show first began, Ari is now the head of the studio and recruits Vincent to star in his first picture, but Vince wanting to direct the film, plus a whole new series of flings and E and Sloan’s (Emmanuelle Chriqui) new baby bring about a whole new series of obstacles the entourage must overcome to stay on top. The film is written and directed by series creator Doug Ellin (The Waiter, Phat Beach) and is released by Warner Bros. in partnership with HBO. Enjoy!

The new World War II drama, Fury, with Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf opened last weekend and effectively knocked Ben Affleck’s Gone Girl from the top-spot to a close second. The film hit theater audiences with just under $24 million in opening weekend box-office sales alone, and the pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The highly advertised, but apparently unpopular animated feature The Book of Life with Channing Tatum only brought in $17 million, also falling behind Gone Girl‘s third week of release. This week will see another set of uninteresting features, including the Keanu Reeves action flick John Wick (no rhyme intended), and the new horror movie Ouija. There are some pretty interesting projects coming out, however, that will unfortunately only see limited releases. One of these include director Greg Araki‘s dramatic thriller White Bird in a Blizzard with Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, and Christopher Meloni, but the more intriguing release is the documentary Citizenfour, which features interviews with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong with documentarian and reporters Laura Poitras, Glen Greenwald, and Ewen MacAskill. “Citizenfour” was the alias used by Snowden when he contacted Poitras in 2013 via encrypted emails containing Snowden’s evidence of the NSA’s covert surveillance program. Wiki-leaks founder Julian Assange is also featured in the documentary. So if you don’t want to waste your money on another terrible movie about ghosts or featuring Keanu Reeves, put these down on your list. Other limited features to look out for include writer/director Justin Simien’s dramatic comedy Dear White People, the high school football drama 23 Blast, and directors Wai-keung Lau and Andrew Loo’s Revenge of the Green Dragons, a crime-drama following young men involved with the Chinese mafia in 1980s New York City. Enjoy!

For the last few years Adidas has been developing a soccer ball (the ‘Brazucam’) that is complete with 360 degree views, as it gets booted around the field. The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil will take a whole new angle (literally) when watching the Cup. With a brand new prospective on and off the field, viewers will be able to feel much closer to the action. Adidas made it clear that we can expect interviews and extra behind the scenes footage with the new ball.

It is pretty interesting to see just how technology is affecting EVERYTHING in our lives, and sports are being widely affected due to this. Maybe this is a sign of things to come and maybe see some basketball or football cams in the near future.